Y'all know me!!! What's a good party?

He might as well use Jaheira instead of Cernd. Jaheira's twice as useful as Cernd and eight times as interesting an NPC.
The blackrazor's not much good to anyone at the point in the game you find it.

[Draggor]

Why change your initial party, looks good to me. My last two parties have both been like that: Me (paladin first now fighter, favourite character), Jahiera, Minsc, Aerie, Viconia, Jan dropped for Imoen.
Seriously you could try yourself as a fighter for one of the more interesting strongholds and a similar style character as your paladin. It depends how different you want your next game. Choose a complete opposite like a mage. I have particular NPCs that I like and have grown a feel for their abilities so it depends on whether you're the same or not. Decide whether you like personality or stats. As you said you want a good party try this
You swashbuckler
Minsc
Jahiera
Jan
Keldorn or Anomen
Aerie or Viconia
This is a party that you can take up to rep 20. Just remember that you can't keep Viconia and Keldorn in the same party for long without a fight erupting. Have either Keldorn plus Aerie for some good interactions or Viconia and Anomen for peace and a hot romance (Viconia not Anomen).
GW a few replies to you. A. He said he wants to be good. It's harder playing this game as evil because they wrote it deliberately from a heroes perspective. There's no good reason to play evil.
B. You CAN'T keep Yoshimo. I didn't use him at all and I returned to the copper coronet in chapter six to find him dead on the floor.

Neither Jaheira nor Viconia will stand for 20 rep. Who says you need to play the game as either good or evil? I just mix the two up however I feel like it. The characters certainly don't care about alignment. Some are even friendly to each other, e.g. Edwin and Aerie, or Korgan and Mazzy. Some people just play an evil character because it suits their personality more.
There's a trick to keeping Yoshimo. Leave him in the Coronet while you go through chapters four and five. When you come back to the Coronet, as soon as you walk in, pause and talk to Yoshi. You'll walk over and start a conversation with him. Put him in your party. When the conversation ends, Yoshi will die, and you can then ressurect him. Voila.

Also, Anomen's a dick.

[Draggor]

Viconia and Jahiera will stand for rep 20, well Vic will if she's your lover. They'll complain occassionaly but they'll stay in the group at least. Means you can buy stuff cheap. They knew what they were getting themselves into when they joined. Hmm didn't try that with Yoshi, oh well never wanted him anyway. And yes Anomen is a Dick. By far the most annoying character in the whole game. I made the mistake of recruiting him my first game and spent the rest of the game insulting him and telling him I didn't believe his stories.

[Yorick]

Firstly Anomens script may be annoying but he's nowhere near as annoying as Minsc. Couldn't stand his dialogue in BG1 and when BG2 had him in Ch1 I just thought "Oh no was he that popular?" To make matters worse he's stats mean he's a very good fighter, I drop him as soon as I'm in the city despite the sacrifice. Anyhow Anomen is THE undead killer. They totally explode en-masse, and that's quicker than Viconias "fight for meeee" solution.

I prefer changing characters as the situation demands. Equipped properly most characters kick some serious ARSE (notice the spelling? They kick bottoms - not donkeys.)
And it's fun using the various personalities. Thus for example, I used Anomen whenever I went into undead territory.

When balancing a party I always keep this in mind:
1 Tank
1 Healer
1 Thief
1 Spellcaster
1 Melee/2nd tank
1 Multi char or 2nd Healer

Various characters are more than one of those so it depends on how you USE them that counts. Therein lies the beatiful flexibility... Aerie can be your healer OR your spellcaster. My gosh, Mazzy or Valygar can be your tank OR Melee! Jahiera can be tank OR healer....even BOTH!


(The thing I have to remember is that although we Australians may have the most 'developed' sense of sarcasm in the world this can't be accurately conveyed without tonal inflections......hmmmmn)

[Yorick]

BTW Draggor you can play through and be well rewarded for playing as an evil character. Even though the rewards at the end differ depending on the choices you make, they are balanced - some would say leaning slightly toward the evil choices. Also, some quests exist that only an evil person can truly finish and be rewarded for.

The funny thing though is that seriously, in AD&D even "good" characters are evil. If ultimate good equals putting anothers needs ahead of your own (taken to extremes a Mother Teresa type person who devotes their life to helping others) and ultimate evil equals completing your own agenda at the expense or harm of another (Taken to extremes a genocidal Hitler/Idi Amin or Pol Pot type person) then killing another human, denying them existence, is evil.

Killing is a necessary evil? Necessary for who?

[JohnnyV]

me kensai/mage
minsc (got to love him right boo)
aerie (minsc's witch)
jaheria (old family friend and possible romantic interest)
yoshimo\imoen (thief plus I feel I have to keep Imoen)
viconia (what can I say she is hot)

you do not need nalia to do her quest and get the stronghold. I did it without her in the party.
even though I was sleeping with viconia for a while she still left the party when rep went to 19. so maybe she will tolerate a high rep while the romance is going on but after she ends it she sure won't (I used shadow keeper to make her alignment neutral when she wanted to leave).

Yes, it's viable to be evil in the game. You can be evil and get/maintain a decent reputation. Just think of someone who is greedy and who does good acts not to help others but because of the reward, or does it to swell his ego. Besides, with quite a few items for evil characters only (such as the flesh armor), it would be worth trying.

Anyway the reason to have Cernd instead of Jaheria is because you already won with Jaheria, it's to try out a different character. You can afford to sacrifice her usefulness on the front line when you have Yoshimo as a fighter anyway.